Length of dating and success of marriage

wedding sites, jewelry stores and TLC shows, all have two things in common: hyping up the materialist aspect of marriage and, of course, love... To see if wedding propaganda played any part in helping marriages last, two Emory University professors conducted a survey called "'A Diamond is Forever' and Other Fairy Tales: The Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration." After surveying a sample of straight married couples this past summer and studying their marital habits, satisfaction and age at each part of their relationship milestones, they found that wedding logistisics (other than love) do matter, but not in the way you'd expect.

Randy Olson, a data analyst and Computer Science graduate research assistant, made graphs that break down the survey's findings — which Olson points out are trends in correlation, not causation.

The study states that couples who spend ,000 or more on their wedding are 46 percent more likely to get a divorce.

“In this particular sample, longer periods of dating seemed to be associated with subsequent marital happiness,” the paper’s authors conclude.For a 1985 paper in the journal , a team of researchers from Kansas State University’s department of Home Economics recruited 51 middle-aged married women and split them into four groups: those had dated for less than five months; those who had spent six to 11 months getting to know their future husband; those who had dated for one to two years; and those who had dated for over two years.The researchers asked the women how satisfied they felt with their marriages, and used their answers to explore three factors that might contribute to marital satisfaction: length of courtship, age at marriage, and whether or not they broke up with their partner at least once while dating.Ted Huston, Ph D, professor of Ecology and Psychology at the University of Texas, studied 168 couples over the course of 13 years.Huston believes the habits formed in courtship plant the seeds for success or failure in marriage.